Generally speaking, an incinerator is essentially a combination of a furnace and a chemical process system with the primary purpose of waste destruction and volume reduction. A traditional two chamber incinerator has a fuel fired burner and a combustion air blower for each chamber. The solid or liquid waste is reacted with oxygen to turn it onto a fuel gas in the primary combustion chamber. The fuel gas is mixed with additional air in a secondary combustion chamber and reacted to form exhaust gas.
Fuel fired burners are used to preheat the chambers. The fuel fired burner in the second combustion chamber is usually operated at all times to maintain the temperature of that chamber and to provide an ignition source for the fuel gas entering from the primary combustion chamber. The fuel fired burner for the primary combustion chamber is usually turned off once the solid or liquid waste begins reacting and gives off heat. The amount of combustion air that enters the two chambers also controls the rate of the reactions. Although this allows good control of the system temperatures, it requires two separate burners and two blowers. In a few instances, the prior art teaches two-chamber arrangements having a single burner. In these prior art teachings, the heat from on chamber is used to ignite the other combustion chamber, via conduction through the walls of the combustion chambers. There is a loss of efficiency due to the heating via conduction. Thus, it is desired to have a more efficient two-chamber incinerator having a single burner for providing combustion in both chambers.